Brace yourselves, this is the ultimate camera shoot-out between the HTC One M8 and the Nexus 5 with a DSLR and a point-and-shoot as reference devices.

I include the links to samples of HTC One M8, Google Nexus 5 with and without HDR, and also the 2 cameras. Note: after taking a couple of pics of the same scene with 4 different devices, I decided to continue on with only the phones, so there is going to be only a limited amount of samples by both Nikon cameras.

Google Nexus 5 without HDR+

Google Nexus 5 with HDR+

HTC One M8 without HDR

HTC One M8 with HDR

Nikon D90

Nikon Coolpix

Whether you like the one device or the other, depends on what you want your phone’s camera to be able to do. The camera on the One M8 has a wide field of view. Something other manufacturers could learn from HTC, HTC has been doing that since forever. I remember HTC Desire S also having a wide field of view. It is a mid-range phone from 2011!
The Nexus 5 on the other hand, has a higher resolution and OIS, so even when moving the phone it is much easier to get focus on the subject. And that’s also why video recording is also a lot more stable. Higher resolution is ideal for people who view their pictures on high-res monitors, and like to print them out or to crop. The camera app, hands down, is better on the One M8. But Google has released it’s app to the Play Store, which means they will be constantly pushing new updates with new features to the app without the need of a system update. That’s a major plus. But the actual usability and features are far more developed in the app of the One M8.

Here are also 1080P video demos of both phones:

Google Nexus 5

HTC One M8

One thing I will say about M8’s camera though, is that, the HDR mode tends to work pretty wild. Sometimes it will save the day and deliver very good pictures and sometimes it will just overblow colors. The HDR+ mode on the Nexus 5, might not work as evident as the one on the One M8, but you will at least get consistent performance out of it. And pictures taken with HDR+ mode on the Nexus 5 are always much better than the standard mode. On the M8 on the other hand, it depends on the scene, lighting etc. Sometimes pictures in Auto mode will come out better than pics taken with HDR mode. Other times it will be the other way around.
Neither of these phones have the best camera performance of smartphones, but in our opinion, both of those will deliver the performance for your Instagramming, Facebooking and Snapchatting needs. The HDR modes on both might even give you some exceptional results for more than sharing on social networks.
Guys, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments!